The first study

In the first randomized controlled trial of this new autism therapy, 3 to 12 year-old children with classic autism were assigned to either a sensory enrichment group, which received daily olfactory/tactile stimulation along with exercises that stimulated other paired sensory modalities, or to a control group.

Certified and experienced professionals administered tests of cognitive performance and autism severity to both groups at the initiation of the study and after six months.

This study was published in 2013 and won the W.G. Marquis Award from the American Psychological Association.

Results of the first study

Severity of autism, as assessed with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale, improved significantly in the enriched group compared to controls.

Results showed that after 6 months of therapy 42% of the children in the sensory enrichment group achieved clinically significant improvement of 5 points on that scale, compared to only 7% of the children in the standard care group.

Percent of individuals with clinical improvement
on the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)

Sensory enrichment also produced a clear improvement in cognition, as determined by their Leiter-R Visualization and Reasoning scores.

At six months, the change in average IQ scores for the children in the enriched group was 11.3 points higher than that of the children in the control group.

Change in IQ score (Leiter)

Finally, 69% of parents in the enriched group and 31% of parents in the control group reported improvement in their child over the six-month study.

The Replication Study

In a second randomized clinical trial of this autism therapy, the University of California Irvine research team was able to replicate and expand on the results of the first study with twice as many children.

The parents of children with classic autism, aged 3 to 6 years old, gave them either standard care along with daily sensory enrichment therapy, or they received standard care alone.

After six months, the children in the sensory enrichment group showed greater gains in their I.Q. scores (+8.4 points), compared to the gains showed by children in standard care alone (+1.5 points) after six months, as assessed by the Leiter-R test.

The children in the sensory enrichment group also demonstrated greater reductions in their atypical sensory responses (+11.4 points) compared to the children receiving standard care (+2.9 points), as determined by the Short Sensory Profile.

Change in IQ score (Leiter)

Change in Short Sensory Profile

In addition, children in the sensory enrichment group improved their receptive language, as assessed by the Reynell Developmental Language Scales, by 7.42% in six months, compared to children in the standard care group, who improved by 3.63% during that period.

Remarkably, 21% of the children in the sensory enrichment group who initially had been classified as having classic autism using the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule improved to a level below the autism classification cut-off. None of the children in the control group improved to that extent.

Change in Receptive Language

21% of Sensorimotor-Enriched children and 0% of Standard-Care children fell below the autism cutoff score after 6 months

A Study with 1,002 Subjects

A large study of 1,002 children was published in 2016 in Neural Plasticity, a peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes articles related to all aspects of neural plasticity, with special emphasis on its functional significance as reflected in behavior and in psychopathology.

This study included children aged 1 to 18 years old, and included autism and other disorders. It showed “significant overall gains for a wide range of symptoms in these children, including learning, memory, anxiety, attention span, motor skills, eating, sleeping, sensory processing, self-awareness, communication, social skills, and mood/autism behaviors.” Further, it reported, “The treatment was effective across a wide age range … and for individuals at all levels of initial symptom severity.”

Those who implemented Mendability Therapy consistently saw 4 times the improvements of those who did not. They also enjoyed significant improvements of at least 1 point on a 5-point scale in 46% of over 300 aspects and symptoms measured. Those who did not participate well saw only 6% of the symptoms improve to that level.

We had our annual IEP meeting with Ryan’s teachers this morning. What a difference a year makes!

Last year, he had his first IQ test and his score was only 54. Ryan couldn’t read at all and his teachers complained he was frequently sad and angry and would shut down at times – and even said he “wanted to jump out of the window and die.” Today, the reports were very positive: he’s much happier (although still angry at times) and can actually read simple sentences. He’s also socializing better with other kids and has better focus.

We thanked his teacher for all of their hard work – and to that I add a “Thank you to Mendability” as well.

He definitely seems to be following instructions better across the board and is just a little more aware of the world around him. We have also seen some improvements in speech, pronunciation, eating, handwriting and overall function.

We are very happy with the results. It has been a great experience for Dad and myself. We are learning that he is capable of so much more than we realized, which has pushed us to push him more. We’ve always had high expectations for him but this has just helped us see that he can do so much more!

We have seen progress in our daughter, she so interested in knowing about people and she is more engaged in conversations. These exercises have been challenging but she loves them, especially Mr. Pokey. The other day when we were doing the exercises, she said “Call me Mrs. Pokey.”

My 4 year old son is driving a golf cart! He is paying attention to his surroundings as he turns the steering wheel. He straightens up the wheel at the right time. We can give him directions on where to go. Example….”go to Grammy’s house”…..and off he goes. (She lives down the dirt road.)

He is still having quite a problem with talking, making eye contact and verbal stims but he is doing so much better. We have been doing the program for about a year now!

It is my fault that we haven’t been 100% consistent. I often wonder what his progress would be like if I would have been doing the program exactly how I should. He is not really communicating with sentences or playing board games with me, but he is with us!

I remember the months I felt my Ben slipping away! He would always babble and play with my face and look lovingly in my eyes until around 18-19 months. He started to just walk around the room and look out of the corner of his eyes as he “talked” to mysterious “people” in the room. He lost his 50 something words. His ability to count to 10 at a year and a half was gone. He no longer wanted to have me snuggle him or hug him close when putting him to sleep.

But…………

He is wanting to be with me or other people all the time!!! He wants to be in my lap, he wants me to hold him as he looks up at my eyes and says, “UP!”….Wow! When he says Mama, my heart melts!

He chases his sister, takes a newly snatched toy and says, “Mine!”. He is asking for food now too! He may say, chicken or fries for a lot of foods but he is communicating his needs. He loves to tell us “no” and push our hand away when we ask him if he wants something. He even will be a stinker and tell us “no” when he doesn’t want to do something! Wow! Can a Mama be happy about the ornery behavior of a child!!! Yes she can!

Mendability has helped him be more functional! Yes, you can sometimes look at him and see him flap an ear or two. You may can hear him make very silly sounds as he runs around, but he is here, he is with us now! He is learning to write his name, his alphabet and even actually pretending to read!

I have had an non verbal autisic boy in my home now for almost 3 years. He was 11 when he first came.

His list of areas of need was long. The major things being aggression, lack of toilet training, no communication skills or desire to communicate, inability to remain in one place for longer than a few minutes, ate only carbs and sugars and was very selective with them and he NEVER stayed in bed or his room at night.He had no eye contact and the list goes on and on.

Today, he is still autistic but very seldom stims. The aggression is perhaps once every 3 months. As he communictes better this will also improve.

He toilets himself and showers independently.

He brushes his teeth AND allows the dentist to check, clean and x ray with NO problems(he needs to be quick though :-)

He will sit at the table and eat a full course meal with fruits and veggies and meat… Just like everyone else!

He likes to do 100 -200 piece puzzles at one sitting. AND he is now starting to communicate by typing his request. This is just starting!

He sleeps 10-12 hours every night And is quiet and in bed ALL NIGHT!!

He looks most people in the eye and notices when people come and go by waving to them and saying “Hi” or “Bye.”

I am sure I have not covered all his accomplishments in the last 3 years as he is a totally different boy.

I really don’t work on scripting, obsessive speech and echolalia because those are part of the development of speech so I just don’t work hard to stop them. I celebrate them. So today I realized that he does do some talking to himself still but the obsessive scripting and echolalia is just about gone. We are doing some other things as well but this took a lot of time to see.

I definitely recommend using Mendability for at least a year. It seems like at that one year mark was when I realized how much he has changed developmentally. Some weeks he had regression especially at the beginning. He had some really tough weeks and there were times it seemed like he was going backwards, but when you look at small gains over a year, that is when it all starts to add up!

Now I’m working on how to re-adjust to doing some of the things I used to do like go out places and enjoy life more with him!